Hazardous environment suits have been used to protect workers in contaminated areas. Basically, such suits are unitary enclosures with integral hoods and, as necessary, integral glove and boot portions. It is intended that such garments be used in contaminated environments and they are accordingly frequently intended to be "disposable", that is, being designed for single or limited use in view of the fact that the suits themselves may become contaminated by contact with the hazardous environment. The desirability of making such garments disposable has been enhanced by the use of lower cost materials when compared with materials which would otherwise be necessary to permit a suit to survive repeated cleaning and decontamination. At the same time, even reduced cost materials must be reasonably resistant to wear, tear, normal handling in use and, of course, resistant to the particular hazard or hazards of a given use. Thus, while garments may be made from material as inexpensive as paper, paper would not normally be resistant to moisture or chemical attack and would be subject to being easily torn, therefore rupturing the protective shield and destroying the garment's effectiveness.
A material which has come into use for hazardous area protective garments is a non-woven spunbonded olefin, an example of which is sold by e.i. duPont de Nemours & Company under its trademark Tyvek, which has coated or laminated on one side thereof a polyethylene film. Color may be added to the polyethylene film where laminated.